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WIYN Status - Semester 2015B Proposer Information

NOAO Time on WIYN in Semester 2015B

NOAO will continue to offer access to WIYN and its instruments to the national community in 2015B, albeit with a focus on research programs that are related to exoplanets. Interested observers should consult the NOAO WIYN 2015B Observing Proposal Call for details. This does not apply to people applying for time through WIYN's university partners.

Instrument availability in 2015B

There are several key things to note about the availability of 3.5-m instruments in 2015B:

The upgrade of ODI to a 40 arcmin x 48 arcmin focal plane is underway and on schedule. Current plans call for the instrument to return to the telescope in May, with commissioning through June and early shared risk science in July. Barring any schedule slips or unforeseen problems, the upgraded ODI should be available for the entirety of semester 2015B. WIYN is in the process of procuring a Sloan u filter that will cover the upgraded field of view. The target delivery date is this summer, however users who wish to use a u filter on ODI in 2015B should check on the status of the filter procurement before submitting their proposal.

The two new unique IFUs, HexPak and GradPak, will continue to be offered for shared-risk observing in 2015B. These IFUs are distinguished by having different sized fibers in the same head to optimize the balance between surface brightness and signal-to-noise for various classes of extended objects. They were developed by Matt Bershady's group in Washburn Astronomical Laboratories at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As they are still PI-level, rather than facility, instruments, it is necessary to work with the PI before submitting a proposal to use the new IFUs. Please read the introduction letters from the WIYN director and the instrument PI. More information and instructions on how to proceed can be found on the Hexpak and Gradpak web pages. SparsePak will continue to be offered as a facility instrument.

All other WIYN instruments besides pODI share the second Nasmyth port, known as the Hydra port. Thus, (the IFUs)+WHIRC, WHIRC+Visitor Instruments, and Hydra will be block scheduled. The switch between Hydra and the Instrument Adapter System (IAS) that supports the WIYN High-Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC), SparsePak, Hexpak, Gradpak, and visitor instruments takes two to five days to complete. Normally there is one change from Hydra to the IAS and another switch back to Hydra each semester. Check back here for further updates.

The WHIRC throughput has substantially improved with the new coatings. See the WHIRC Hot News for the latest results.

MiniMo is not expected to be available in 2015B.

Remote Observing

Remote observing at WIYN is now available to all qualified observers (see the remote observing policies). Those wishing to observe remotely with ODI must do so from a pre-approved (and tested) workstation. More information can be found on the WIYN Remote Observing page.

WIYN 0.9m Status

In October of 2013, the WIYN 0.9m observatory started
commissioning and initial operations with the Half Degree
Imager (HDI). The 0.9m consortium is currently offering
nights with HDI to the community as shared risk, through
proposals submitted to NOAO. S2KB is the backup instrument
if HDI becomes unavailable.